Portugal has been, and still is, one of the best birding
locations I run these group holidays to. Our base for the week is a quiet resort
in the east of the country close to the Spanish border in Monte Gordo.

The four star hotel here is one of the best we use
,with a super location , next to the woods leading to the old ferry port of San
Antonio. All meals are buffet style, all rooms have Air Con and a balcony. The
staff and management here have looked after the groups very well over the years.

The birding locally is excellent with Great
Spotted Cuckoo, Little Bustard, Collared Pratincole, Flamingo, Crested Tit,
Short Toed Treecreeper and Slender Billed Gull all within walking
distance or a 10 minute drive from our base.

On a couple of days we are joined by the Algarve and
Alentejo experts , Peter Dedicoat and June Taylor from Algarve Birders. Their
extra knowledge is always very welcome no matter how many times we go.

If your looking for a sensibly priced break in a great
location with friendly people then this is the place for you !

In 2018 I'm expecting the price , half board with
flights from Luton, all transport , guides and reserve costs to be around the £
675/95 pp.

Remember you will need to be a member of this travel club
for at least 4 weeks befoe you can book. See friends page !

Thanks Ken R.

OTHERS !

Health Problem Update.

Good news this week. My consultant say's I have no heart
disease and he hopes to repair the valve in the very near future. So I will
resell the valve i bought on E Bay for £ 7.50 + £ 10.00 pp to the highest
bidder. Thanks for your offers of help and support. Ken R

Surprise Health Problems.

It is with much regret that for health reasons I am unable
to lead the September trip to New England . A recent series of investigations
have revealed a serious problem with my heart . Some might say I don't have one
but according to my consultant he reckons I have but the Mitral valve is in a
bad way.

A replacement is now on the cards in the very near
future and to reduce the cost to the NHS I have been looking on E Bay for a
replacement ( used or new ).

This I hope will not affect any of the UK or European
trips already organised but I may require some help with them.

If you can help please contact me. fairly soon. Ken
R

This is the man who started what
has now become the biggest Birdfair in the world .

Tim Appleton should be pleased with the attendance at the British Birdwatching
Fair.

I hope that the members managed
to get there on at least one of the 3 days.

I was there meeting old friends and organising our future trips!

Thanks go to Swarovski for there
help during the last year.

Scilly Update 2007.

All the news from the Isles Of Scilly is sent to me direct by Neil Glenn .(
13th--20th October)

This week the weather on the islands has
been glorious with one day of rain only. The winds have been light from mixed
directions. They are all hoping for that late American to appear on Thursday or
Friday. The mega's already there, 2 Blackpoll Warblers and a Grey Cheeked Thrush
The Grey Cheeked
shows for a couple of seconds twice a day but the Blackpolls are much showier.

The Blyth's Pipit is still on Tresco , the Juvenile Rosy Starling
is on Gugh, Lapland Bunting around Carn Friers ,The Wilsons Snipe is at Lower Moors ISBG hide,
Little Bunting
works it's way around the
Incinerator, Blyths Reed and
Raddes warblers on Brhyer , Short Toed Lark
is still on the airfield and the Lesser Yellowlegs is determined
to cover the entire the island .

Friday saw the return of Richards Pipit at the windsock with
Firecrest's
And Red Breasted
Flycatchers at various locations on St Mary's

Interesting finds today include Common Crossbill
on Bryher,
3
Woodlark on the Tremelethan Trail, Ring Ouzel and
Short Eared Owl on St Agnes

( Week 21st -- 27th )

The week started very much the same as the
previous. Settled weather and low multi directional wind speeds the main
problem. However I have seen all this before and believe me there is still a
MEGA waiting to arrive.

Tresco has Lapland
Bunting At The Great Pool and Pied Fly at
Old Grimsby. St Marys is now the place to be with my favourite Pallas's Warbler around Old Town Church,
Firecrest plus 3 Mistle
Thrushes -Carn Friers, Penduline Tit - Carreg Dhu, Blackpoll and the
Grey Cheeked are still around but getting any views of the Grey Cheeked is now almost impossible. Some birders
have spent 6hrs waiting for a sighting with no luck.

St Martins is still underwatched with only
7 birders trawling the island on Monday. Birds seen were
Great Northern
Diver- Higher Town, YBW- Post
Office and Richards Pipit - around the school

Bryher's contribution today is Blyths Reed still at Green Bay.

Worth a mention is the well travelled Spoonbill flying from one island to another on a
daily basis

The MEGA has landed today!!!!! Rose Breasted Grosbeak on St Agnes, about time too It's Neil's first "Lifer" this trip and don't think this is the end there is still
one more yet.

15 Black Redstarts are on Tresco today along with the long staying
YBW

St Agnes has
The Rose Breasted Gros ,Rosey Starling and that
possible Veery

Now where has that possible VEERY vanished too ????? I think It's still there.
They are real "skulkers" i've seen them in the States and they are just that.

Neil took his party on a Pelagic today
.It's not the best time to attempt this but the birds seen were Long Tailed Skua, Adult
Little Gull and 5 Great Skua's. Not so
bad after all.

The islands also have a large number of Siskins this year. In Neil's words, every bush tree
and hedgerow has one in it. Yellow browed's also
have
a larger than usual presence with 20 birds around.

Neil and his party of 6 left the Islands on
Friday 26th. I'm sure he will let us have his report soon.

Get yourself ready for an overnight dash to
Cornwall in the next few days. Contact me if you feel you can make it with me. IT
CAN STILL HAPPEN.

Majorca List 2007.

At 133 Species this is one of
our best lists so far from Majorca. Once again we had a great group with 3
complete beginners , you can imagine what they got out of it ! . Who knows next
year .I've been offered the chance to go with a tour company so at this time it
does look as if the club will not be going .That's unless somebody wants' to
take it?? ( GUESS WHAT! I THINK IT'S GOING AGAIN )

The special
bird on this years trip. The Golden
Eagle was still showing it's"
Jessies"

Natures Calendar Filming.

Jenny Craddock has been in
touch with an update on our starring roles
in the programme. Both herself and the executives are very pleased with the
finished film. They are confident that it will be shown on more than one occasion
during the next few years. Neil and myself are signing autographs soon ,I will
let you all know!

All Correspondence should be
sent to my publicist MAX!!

Sitting On " Archie "

Sunday the 17th was a strange day for me when
it started with a juvenile Artic Skua in a paper bag being handed in at Holmes
Obs. It was given to RSPB Titchwell in the morning after being discovered on the
beach exhausted. To get a good view of this bird we had to sit on " Archie "
well not exactly sit on him but his new seat outside the obs it's got a plaque
on it that states " A Birder NOT a Twitcher " . If he was still here I could
remind him of 1999 on "Aggie" running to the post office to see the Whites
Thrush. Still, it's a great position to see all the migrants on route so with
that in mind we must all just-

Keep On Birding Ken R

Red Veined Darters!

Hi Ken

Just phoned Mike Thomas but no reply. Carl Baggott and I had
two immature Red-veined Darters at the northern end of Huncote Embankment late
this morning. They were in the sheltered area between the bank and the hedge.
I put the news out on Birdguides but they don't seem to have included it on
their latest page as yet otherwise Birdline midlands, etc might have picked up
on the message.

We have also seen grass snakes over the last couple of weeks
in the same area as the darters around the piles of chippings where they had
to cut down the trees under the power lines last year.

Cheers

Adey Baker

A Great day @Titchwell

Yes it was definitely a
superb day @ the UK'S leading reserve Fred B , Charlie D, Tony Eaton and
myself did the whole day @ Titchwell . It was
one of the best day's we have ever had as a club. Passing all our Knowledge on
to the beginners is very rewarding . To witness people walking away from the
hides talking about the things they have learnt in our company really make it
all worthwhile . Thanks must go to the RSPB for agreeing to let us into their
hides and Neil Glenn for his help over the last year

Thank's again
Keep On Birding Ken R

Book signing@ Titchwell

Sunday's the day the club members are at
Titchwell to support Neil Glenn at his book signing and offer the
beginners all the help they need to identify some of the more difficult species
on the reserve. It's a great day for the profile of the club with the promise of
media coverage for the event and massive satisfaction for our members. Any
members who feel they can help should contact me NOW!!

Keep on Birding Ken R

Titchwell for the day !

When we came up with the idea of going into the
hides at Titchwell for the day everything seemed fine . But to spend the day
answering all those awkward questions on ID struck total fear into the members
hearts.

Just 3 of us were prepared to face the crowds,
Charlie, Mike Thomas & myself . It was much better than we expected, no it was
better than that, it was fantastic!! with birds and birders coming from all
directions. Red Phal, Wood Sand , Green Sand Common Sand, Bearded tits, Water Rail and Garganey
all performing for the beginners.

The RSPB were happy , we were happy and the
birders we helped were certainly happy. What can I say? that's easy ,were doing
it again on August 13th along with Neil Glenn and the latest book signing. I
just can't wait.

Keep On Birding Ken R

Damselflies On The Ashby
Canal

Hi Ken

This last weekend Carl Baggott and I finally got round
to doing what we'd been threatening to do for a couple of years and had a good
look along a stretch of the canal to see whether
White-legged Damselflies were in attendance in any sort of numbers. On
Saturday we checked from Stoke Golding to Shenton (parking a car at each end)
and on Sunday we did Nutts Lane, Hinckley to Stoke Golding.

We started a fraction too early on Saturday and the
weather wasn't so good on Sunday but we still managed to score over 30
individuals just on the towpath side. As there was more continuous vegetation
on the other side it's fair to presume that the numbers would have been at
least double those that we recorded. Many of the individuals were
freshly-emerged tenerals and immatures so the peak numbers are probably yet to
occur. Some of the photos we took are on the Surfbirds insect gallery, 2 or 3
pages in, now.

We also had five Red-eyed
Damselflies around some of the very few water-lilies on the canal near
to Shenton and several Black-tailed Skimmers
along with Broad-bodied Chasers. Also we saw a
few Water Voles and there was evidence - holes,
droppings, etc.- of quite a good population.

All in all a successful survey. The County dragonfly
maps show clusters of records of White-legs all along both the Grand Union and
Grantham Canals so now we can fill in the gap for our part of the County.

If you know anyone who wants to do something similar -
or even the next section onto Snarestone - the parking of cars at each end is
really useful. It only took us a few minutes at each end of the morning to
drive between Shenton and Stoke but the walk in one
direction was three hours (at a leisurely pace, counting, photographing, etc.
of course!)

Cheers

Adey

The Belted King!

You can imagine my delight when news broke on
Friday afternoon of a male BELTED KINGFISHER
@ Shugborough particularly through no
fault of my own I missed the last one. Sticking ,as all good twitchers do, to
the statutory speed limit I covered the 32 miles in 30 mins. This was no mean
feat around the back lanes of Staffordshire and the centre of Litchfield but it
was well worth a change of underwear to see the KING! Fortunately or unfortunately, depending how your list's going, the
KING! had vanished at dawn and as far as I know
only 2 members of this club saw it, new member Neil Glenn and yours truly. Never
mind there's always the next one. ( Damn, the KING
has reared It's ugly head Aberdeen. All I can say is don't believe everything
you get on those pagers )

Keep On Birding Ken R

Best Result @ Derby For Years!

Without a doubt the best result at the county
ground in years ( me being a Leicester supporter) was the unexpected
arrival of a magnificent Male Dartford Warbler during the last week of
January05. Fred Burton and myself were witness to a superb display of searing
runs down the left, dream crosses from one side to the other, stout defending
and then went on in the second half to score with all the gathered crowd. How
jealous are we that it failed to appear @ the Walker, still there's always next
time perhaps we will get the winner in the end!

Keep On Birding Ken R !

Purple Martin "Miss"

Just you try and guess who it was that travelled
for 6hrs, covered 450 miles heading north, only to have the Purple Martin head
south. Dip, Dip !

Nest's Destroyed!

Congratulations must go to Pete Johnston for his
prompt action that stopped a national company destroying House Sparrows
nest's
in Stoney Stanton . Pete noticed that UK POWER LINES LTD were removing all
the Ivy from pole's along Huncote Rd, he knew that in the Ivy house sparrows were nesting . Pete rang me at work and I immediately informed the company of
their obligations under the Wildlife & Countryside Act . This act clearly states
that if any contractor or company knowingly destroys protected birds nests they
are committing an offence. This prompted them into action (well it would,
let's face it I told them nests were there) contacting the site and instructing
them to stop cutting . They then called me back with a solution, namely to
cut the Ivy at the base of the poles leaving it to die back naturally , this I
agreed and they then contacted the site to give them the new instructions. What
a result ! And all this would never have happened if Pete had not bothered to be
so concerned ." Well Done Pete" top marks to you and a big Get Well Soon from
all the members to Maureen after her recent operation.

The Stoney Stanton Raven!

First seen by the Stanton postmaster Paul Fisher,
this strange addition to the village list has arrived in the last month . If
it's the same bird , and we think it is , it was discovered on Fosse Meadows in
the early part of the month by Mike Thomas. Our theory is that it is probably
the offspring from the pair around Bradgate. We know that it has
visited Croft but now seems to have settled around the cove. Just maybe , it
might bring a partner next year ,what a record for Stanton if it does!! I just
wish we could find a breeding record for the last Raven in the area, let's face
their must have been one. Raven's were in most villages at the beginning of the
19th century, the most famous being the re-introductions at the Tower Of
London. As for the two spotters, keep it up lads you are doing a great job

Keep On Birding Ken R
30/05/04

AmericaSeptember 2003

THIS IS A LIST OF THE BIRDS SEEN ON OUR
RECENT TRIP TO

NEW HAMPSHIRE- MAINE & MASSACHUSETTS

These birds were all seen by a group of dedicated
alcoholics ,Tramps & criminals , who travel under the collective

name of BURBAGE BIRDERS
. We also enjoyed the company of resident American birders who unfortunately

forgot to bring their wallets. Don't worry
, in the words of your great ARNIE "weel be back"!!